4th July 1812: Nottinghamshire solicitor William Woodcock asks the Home Office for instructions on the prosecution of Luddites

Mansfield July 4th 1812

My Lord

I beg leave to inform your Lordship that at the last Nottinghamshire Assizes Bills of Indictment were found against two persons of the names of William Fell and John Clarke for Misdemeanours in being riotously assembled with others for the purpose of Framebreaking at Sutton in Ashfield in this County to which Bills the Defendants pleaded not guilty. Their prosecutions with others in which I was employed as Solicitor were considered at the Expence of Government – In the month of March last George Spray was apprehended for framebreaking but in consideration of his having suffered much from a shot fired at him on his attempting to escape he was admitted to bail to appear at the ensuing Nottinghamshire Assizes and answer to a prosecution for a Misdemeanour only In the same month of March Joseph Falconbridge (a notorious Character) was committed to Nottingham Gaol for framebreaking.

I now request of your Lordship that I may be instructed whether his Majesty's Government will further proceed against Fell and Clarke and also if any proceedings are to be taken against Spray and Falconbridge at the approaching Nottinghamshire Assizes.

For your Lordship’s better Information I send here with Copies of Examinations of Witnesses against the persons above named besides which there is other corroborative Evidence – but I must remark your Lordship I have received undoubted Information that Robert Caunt the Witness against Falconbridge has lately been seduced away by the Associates of Falconbridge and intends not to appear to give Evidence although himself and two Sureties are under Recognizance for his appearance &c

I have [etc]
Wm Woodcock

[To] The Right Honble
Viscount Sidmouth

19th March 1812: The lesser-known cases of Luddites tried at the Nottingham Lent Assizes

The Nottingham Review of 27th March 1812, contained very brief summaries of other cases involving Luddites at the Nottingham Lent Assizes. These cases are not discussed in any of the works about the Luddites that I have read. It is not clear upon which day these cases were heard:

The following entered into a recognizance to try their traverses at the next Assizes:—John Clarke and William Fell, charged with riotously assembling together, in company with many other persons unknown, at Sutton-in-Ashfield, on the 13th of November, 1811, and disturbing the peace. William Bellamy, charged with unlawfully entering the house of Francis Betts, of Sutton-in-Ashfield, in company with many other persons, and stealing one quart bottle of elder wine.

The following prisoners were delivered by Proclamation:—John Slaney, charged upon the oaths of Edward Green and Alexander Mudford, privates in the Royal Berks Militia, with having wickedly incited the said Edward Green to break a frame at Basford, on the 27th of January 1812;—John Godfrey, charged with having incited a number of persons to assemble for the purpose of breaking frames at Arnold, on the 13th of November 1811;—William Parkes and George Shaw, charged with breaking five frames in the parish of St. Mary, in this town, on the 25th of November, 1811.